Japanese Study Guide

Japanese Study Guide

Japanese Language
• Japanese is an East Asian language spoken by about 128 million people,
the majority of whom live in Japan. It is very different from other
languages, making it one of the most difficult languages to master, but
that doesn't mean it’s impossible to learn! The trick to learning any
language is to take your time and have a lot of patience. Looking at the
amount of entertainment, music, shows, and resources available, learning
Japanese can be a very enjoyable process!
How to Study
• When studying Japanese, it is important that we write everything
down on paper, because that will help your brain, as well as your
hand with remorizing (muscle memory). If that doesn't work, I
suggest writing each word down on a sticky note and putting it
around your house so your brain can learn and memorize it
subconsciously. Listening, in addition to writing and reading, is an
incredibly necessary aspect of learning any language in general
because you can get to know how native speakers express themselves
in that language. As mentioned before, there are many resources to
help you! Finally, one of the most important aspects of learning
Japanese is to immerse yourself in their culture and gain an
understanding of their people, humour, and mindset.
Getting Started
• Before you begin studying, consider the following questions:
• Why do you want to learn Japanese?
• How will you use Japanese? (work, job opportunities, travel,etc.)
• Is Japanese the language you truly want to learn?

• If you already have an answer for these questions, let’s get to

studying!
What to Study
• Alphabet.
• Modern Japanese is written in a mixture of three basic scripts:
• Hiragana (main alphabet which is used to represent every sound in Japanese)
• Katakana (mainly used for words borrowed from other languages)
• Kanji (Chinese characters)
• It is important to know Hiragana before moving on to more studying. The
reason for that is that you can write any Japanese sound using Hiragana, so
once you've mastered it, your studies will be much easier and you'll feel
fantastic knowing that you can finally read and write some Japanese! First,
learn Hiragana, then Katakana, and finally Kanji. I really recommend writing
the pronunciations of Kanji characters in Hiragana instead of using Romaji!
(Roman characters)
What to Study
• Following Hiragana is Katakana, which is mostly used for borrowed
words from other languages. In order to write a foreign word in
Japanese, we must use Katakana. Hiragana and Katakana have the
same syllable count and pronunciation (in other words, they're the
same, but they look a little different).
• Here’s an example:
• Hiragana: A - あ RU - る MO - も
• Katakana: A - ア RU - ル MO - モ
What to Study
• When we memorize Hiragana and Katakana, we can finally get to Kanji! As
mentioned before, Kanji (which literally translates to “Han characters”) is based
on Chinese characters. The reason why it is so difficult for people is because
there are more than 50,000 of them, and each Kanji can have more than one
meaning/pronunciation depending on context, but don’t scare yourself too
much because even a Japanese person doesn’t know half of them! On average,
every Japanese adult can recognize only about 2,000 Kanji. Crazy right?
• When studying Kanji, it is very important to have a good Japanese dictionary, so
here is my recommendation:
• Dictionary: https://jisho.org/
• Search up “#grade:1 #kanji”, or a Kanji that you want to find the meaning of (you
have to type the pronunciation of it in Romaji)
• Try to learn at least one Kanji per day!
What to Study
• 2. Sentence Structure.
• When you are finally able to read and write Hiragana and Katakana, as well as recognizing some
Kanji, it’s time to learn the sentence structure!
• Japanese is a SOV language, meaning that the SUBJECT comes FIRST, the OBJECT comes SECOND,
and the VERB comes THIRD.
• For Example:
• I like cats - 私は猫が好きです 私は 猫 が 好き です
• watashi wa neko ga su ki de su I cat (verb) like (verb)
Useful Resources and App Recommendations
• Shirabe Jisho: Japanese dictionary
• Duolingo: Hiragana, Katakana, basic phrases, and sentence structure
• Mirai Japanese: Everything
• Drops: Words
• Pimsleur: Basic conversations (listening and speaking practice)
• HelloTalk: Language exchange app (chatting with native speakers)
• Quizlet: Testing